I get what people mean when they ask me that question. So here I am writing a blog entry that hopefully can help with it. When someone asks me what kind of computer they should get, the first thing I ask is, "How much money are you looking to spend." How much you want to spend can really help filter out the "other" kinds of computers you should not get. Once you know your range of tolerance for dipping into your finances, you can start to ask about the style - laptop or desktop. For the same computer internals, you can typically get a desktop computer for less than a laptop. Here's something about choosing a laptop. Some people get the idea that they want a laptop. They buy the laptop, and put it on a desk in their home and surprisingly never move the laptop! So why get a laptop? Anywayssss....
Basically, there are 6 components to a computer that really matter, in my opinion. These are:
- CPU type and speed
- RAM (memory)
- Hard Drive
- Video Card
- Monitor
- Operating System
At the risk of not having to update this blog entry every 3 months, I'll try to keep the terminology to a minimum when describing how you shop for these items.
CPU's are the main "brains" of your computer. I liken it to the engine in your car. No engine, no go. No CPU, no doing computer-type stuff. CPU's are known by their manufacturer (Intel or AMD), family (Core 2 Duo, i7, Optera, etc..), and finally speed (usually in Gigahertz or GHz).
RAM is the memory from which your computer runs programs. Let's just keep it simple and say get as much RAM as you can. Usually RAM is measured in units of Gigabytes or GB.
The hard drive of your computer is where you store things. Programs, pictures, music, documents, etc. Hard drives are measured in terms of Gigabytes (GB) or Terabytes (TB). A Terabyte is one thousand Gigabytes. So.. again, get as big of a hard drive that you can.
The video card is the electronic component connected to, or built in to the motherboard. I really hate to say this, but if you are going to be playing games, you will want to spend a little extra on the video card. If you are going to be playing games, you probably already know this. If you are going to be doing things like email, browsing the web and such, you will be fine with whatever video card comes with the computer.
The monitor is another personal preference. I like BIG monitors with high resolution. Resolution is measured by pixels. Basically a screen dot. The laptop from which I'm typing this blog has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. This means that my monitor can show 1920 dots horizontally and 1200 dots vertically. The higher the resolution the better, and more expensive. Be aware that you will want to match the maximum resolution of the output of your video card with the maximum resolution of your monitor.
Lastly, the operating system is to be selected. However, when you are pricing computers, you really won't have that many options when it comes to this. Package deal computers are going to come with what the manufacturer loads. What I really mean here is whether you want a Windows PC or a Mac. I'm not going to really get into this because there are a million other sites you can go to for this argument. You make up your own mind.
All in all, I've found that people usually want to buy the cheapest thing they can find. And that's just fine! Computers get "old" very quickly because of technology advancements, so when you go to buy your next new computer, you won't feel so bad that you bought a cheap one last time.
If you really want to get geeky, you've got some patience and a few extra bucks, maybe you'd want to build a computer yourself? No? Yes?
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